Spelling and the CP E N T Ry for Cruel, Use the Form Give N S Tylebook
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Content st yle guide October 5, 2004 INSIDE Read this first This guide is designed to be used in If the main entry offe rs a choice, as EXCEPTIONS TO CP 2 conjunction with The Canadian it does with crueller and crueler in the Press’s Caps and Spelling and the CP e n t ry for cruel, use the form give n S tylebook. It does not re p l a ce those f i rst. In this way, you’ll find that we SPELLING TIPS guides; it supplements them. us e crueller (not crueler), knitted (not Fo l l ow Caps and Spelling and the knit) and pleaded (not pled). Double trouble 2 CP Stylebook on ca p i ta l i za t i o n , But it bea rs re p eating that the dic- To E or not to E 2 spelling, abbrev i a t i o n s, place names t i o n a ry is a fa l l back, not a primary Accents 3 and French names, apart from the few source for spellings. We turn to it on- exceptions listed below. The entries ly if we fail to find the wo rd in Caps Possessives 3 on these subje c ts at the front of Caps and Spelling. And when yo u ’re look- Homophone horrors 4 and Spelling will answer many fre- ing in Caps and Spelling, re m e m b e r q u e n t ly asked questions about ca p i- that some sports terms appear only talization and spelling. under the heading for the re l eva n t DOS AND DON’TS M o re detailed explanations can be sport. found in the CP Stylebook. The se c- The spell-checking prog ram in our Addresses 5 tions on numbers, possess i ves and com p u te r s can be helpful but it has no Clutter 5 hyphens are especially helpful. a u th o ri t y. Sometimes, as when it says Criminal charges 6 For determining how The Spectato r miniscule is OK, it’s just wrong. spells a wo rd, this is the order of The Canadian Oxfo rd Dictionary Measurements 6 precedence: has no special authority when it Per cent 6 1. This guide. comes to meaning and usag e. Becau s e Profanity and vulgarity 7 2. Caps and Spelling. i ts mandate re q u i res it to include 3. The Canadian Oxfor d Dictionary. w i d e s p read abuses and misuses of Quotations 7 For wo rds not cove red by the list of wo rd s, you cannot assume that a Street names 7 exceptions on page 2, follow Caps and m eaning or usa ge listed in the CO D Spelling. exemplifies careful and correct use of For wo rds that do not appear in the English. If a particular usa ge is fo r- JOURNALESE 8 list of exceptions or Caps and bidden or rec ommended in this guide, Spelling, use the spelling in the dic- that advice takes precedence over the t i o n a ry adopted by The Canadian COD. LINE BY LINE Pre s s, the Canadian Oxfo rd Dictio- Bylines 9 nary. If more than one spelling is liste d Placelines 9 for a wo rd, use the one that heads the Cutlines 10 main entry or, within the main entry, Ledes 10 the first alternative given. For example, the entry for fogy in- PUNCTUATION 11 cludes the note “var[iant] of FO G EY ” GRAMMAR 13 and no definition. So the main entry is under fogey, and that’s the spelling to WORDS TO WATCH 14 u se. In the same way, you can dete r- mine that we use adrenalin (not LOCAL KNOWLEDGE 16 adrenaline) and embed (not imbed). POLITICIANS 23 RECIPES 23 3EDIT009 / OCTOBER 5, 2 0 0 4 SPELLING Exceptions to CP aesthetic but esthetician (beautician) Heights. Use figures for all numbers, even n o n ex i s tent, prear ra n g e, postg ra d u a te , those under 10: 6-foot-2. re i ssue, reopen, se m iwe e k ly. For exce p- al-Qaeda tions, see under Hyphen on page 12. jeweller y back yar d (like front yard) pretense (not pretence) Kie v, the capital of Ukraine c ad d i e ( p e rson who carries a go l fe r ’s proteg é (not protege or protégé) clubs) Koran R a n ks and titles. Spell out. This does not copter (no apostrophe) ma tzah (not matzo) a p p ly to Dr. or to Rev., which is neve r spelled out and never preceded by the . Co u r ts. Capita l i ze all Ontario co u r ts. See maven (not mavin) Recipes. Use figures for all numbers. Local Knowledge for details. (no periods) Do not convert to km/h mph S h i ra z . Capita l i ze the grape va r i e ty and CT scan (not CAT scan) for com p u te r i ze d in U.S. auto racing stories. the wine. tomography scan Per cent. Use numerals for all numbers, te r raco tta . One wo rd. But Te r ra Co t ta is eBay even under 10: 3 per cent. Never hy p h e n- a village north of Georgetown. ate. See under Hyphen on page 11. Headlines. Ignore the headline style for Tex as. Do not abbreviate. Canadian Pres s files in the CP Style b o o k . P re f i xe s. In ge n e ral, do not use hy p h e n s a f ter pre f i xes: arc h r ival, multipurpose , under w ay . Two words. Spelling tips H a rd labour phabet. CP style generally doubles l, m, p SINGLE L i ke The Canadian Pre ss, we use the and r, but not s and t. So s and t stay sin- S s p e l l i n gs co l o u r, humour, vigo u r, etc. gle, letters ahead of them in the alphabet biased not co l o r, humor, vigo r, etc. There are are doubled: bused, busing about 40 such word s . You will find most DOUBLE focus, focused, focusing of them on page 7 of Caps and Spelling. L ga ses (No b o dy spells ga ssed, ga ss i n g The u is omitted befo re these suffixe s : councillor, counsellor with one s.) - a ry, -ation, -escent, -ific, -ize, -ious, crueller, cruellest T -ous. Thus honorary, coloration, labori- dialled, equalled, fuelled, labelled, to- benefited, benefiting ous, humorous, etc. talled, tasselled, travelled budgeted, budgeting No te also that the -our wo rds do not medallist, panellist targeted, targeting include pallor, squalor, stupor, tremor. panelling, travelling tranquillity, tranquillizer To E or not to E Double tro u b l e traveller In CP spelling style, the letter e is use d Final con so n a n t s of root wor ds are often woollen, woolly be fo r e suffixes like -able when it indi- doubled when endings are added. Fo r (Nobody spells paralleled with four l’s.) cates that the preceding g or c is “soft”: some word s , such as benefiting and M changeable t ravelling, usa ge varies between British programmer, programming knowledgeable and American English, and Canadians ( No b o dy spells acc u s tomed with two manageable are caught in the middle. m’s.) noticeable This note does not deal with the rules P It is not used befo re a suffix beginning for doubling in English, but provides a kidnapper,worshipped with a consonant, such as -ment: trick for remembering which alte r n a t ive (Nobody spells developed with two p’s.) acknowledgment to use in those wo rds where usa ge var ies . R judgment For t u n a te l y, there is a simple mnemonic occurred, occurrence It is also not used befo re suffixes like ba sed on the lette r ’s position in the al- transferred,transferring -able when it indica tes that the pre ce d- ... 2 ... 3EDIT009 / OCTOBER 5, 2 0 0 4 SPELLING ing vowel is “long”: the acce n ts on something like Sûreté du Mike Harris’s government likable Québec when you can call it the Quebec the bus’s signal light sizable provincial police. Richard Strauss’s operas unmistakable The Caisse de dépôt manages Quebec’s the witness’s account usable public pension fund. Some people drop the suffix on one- Exception: mileage Q u é b é cois is a French wo rd with two syllable names ending with an s-so u n d . a c u te acce n ts. Quebecer is an English We do not: Ac ce n t s word with no accents. Sheila Copps’s riding It is important to note that, for tec h n i ca l But accents do appear on some English Bill Gates’s billions reasons, copy arriving by wire from The wo rd s. Let the dictionary be your guide. We also keep the -’s on one-syl l a b l e Canadian Press does not conform to CP You’ll find that it gives debris, debut and names ending with a z-sound: s tyle. French acce n ts are missing fro m d e cor without acce n ts.